Why it works: Vinegar and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,386 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Soused Mackerel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
If using fresh mackerel, clean it and boil in salted water.
If using salted mackerel, freshen it slightly first.
Remove the fish from the water, reserving about ½ cup of the cooking liquid.
Make the pickling liquid
Mix the reserved liquid with an equal amount of vinegar.
Heat the mixture until scalding hot, adding a few peppercorns and cloves.
Pickle
Pour the hot mixture over the fish and let it pickle for three days.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,386 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh mackerel
- Oily flesh that the hot brine and acid gradually firm and season as it pickles.
- Vinegar
- Acidity that pickles the fish and helps keep it stable over the pickling period.
- Peppercorns
- Warm, aromatic spice that flavours the pickling liquid.
- Cloves
- Strong, sweet aroma that flavours the pickling liquid.
The step that matters
Pouring the scalding mixture over the fish. The liquid must be hot so it penetrates the flesh and extracts the spice flavours, and the fish must be fully covered so no part is left unpickled or exposed to air. The acid in the vinegar does the preserving work, so the mixture should be made with the stated equal amounts of liquid and vinegar.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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